Slow Down Ploise

Geez, the weeks seem to be flying by at the moment. Only 17 weeks till our trip now so that's good but I can't keep up with my blog!!

Let's see, what's happened in the past week....

Last Saturday night some friends and I went to Libertine in North Melbourne. I think I have mentioned before that I regularly go to dinner with two particular couples, I'm their 5th wheel. They take pity on me as if I was there sad single friend because I'm constantly sans husband. In fact I went to the Husband's restaurant with the same peeps a few months ago (I was banned from blogging about it but I'll just say this....OH MY GOD). Unfortunately last Saturday nights dinner was not so successful. The wine was great and poured very generously but the food was not memorable. The lack of excitement in the food is, in my opinion, what led to a very heated discussion about politics, theology and history, quickly promoting us to the position of Most Obnoxious Table - you know what I'm talking about, sideways glances from other patrons, waiters avoiding us like the plague...the food might not have been great but nor was our behaviour! That was a weird night. After we cooled down and left the restaurant we headed into the city for a drink. I slipped on the wet footpath on Collins Street and did the full splits - my girlfriend F was super impressed, my hips were not...I'm still hobbling a week later!

Sunday was much quieter, brekkie at Collective Espresso (best coffee) and then a late session of the much anticipated Sex and the City 2...more on that later.

The beginning of this week passed without much fuss and on Wednesday I headed down the coast to visit my mum for her birthday. My grandmother came too and the three of us went to see SATC2, yes that's twice for me. Now, I have always been a massive fan of the show, I think it is still relevant and funny, and the first movie was great. It was such a thrill to see the four girls reunited and the storyline made sense. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the new film, i did, especially the second time when I had no expectations and could just enjoy the fashion and funny moments (especially Carrie's gold Louboutins in the opening scenes, THEY BLEW MY MIND) but the story was a bit weak and there were moments when I wondered what on earth the writers were thinking, scenes they completely broke with the cool, sassy nature of the original series.

After the film it was back to mum and dad's for dinner. I have mentioned that not only am I the wife of a chef but the daughter of one too. Dad is halfway through the second year of his apprenticeship and has taken to it like a duck to the proverbial water. He cooked a delicious sichuan pork belly dish which was, in the words of Seinfeld's Poppy 'even more'a succulent than I could have'a hoped for'. But the highlight of the night was the 'Toblerone' dessert (pictured). He's so clever!!

Thursday and Friday were non-events and that brings us back to Saturday. No plans tonight. I attempted to sew a skirt on an old sewing machine a picked up on ebay a while ago but I only got as far as cutting the fabric out last night before I realised I'd completely screwed it up already, oh, did I forget to mention I have absolutely no dressmaking/sewing/pattern making experience whatsoever? So that's on hold for a while!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend (thanks Queenie) and hopefully I'll be a better blogger next week.

OH!!!! H has been shortlisted for the Good Food Guide young chef of the year! VERY exciting!

bad bad bad bad girl

Yes I am supposed to be saving, yes I am going on a fabulous holiday in a few months and should be putting all my savings towards that BUT I have also been looking for a pair of red shoes for a long time.

So I tried these on.

And I felt like Dorothy.

And I put them on lay-by....BAD!!

I haven't talked too much about my shoe collection (read obsession) but I had put myself on a total shoe ban to save for this holiday.

But just picture these boots in London, with boyfriend jeans, and tartan Pepe jeans jacket....CUTE!! How could I leave them behind?

H will yell...

By the way, they are Nude and little Miss M spotted them for me after lay-buying her own pair of HOT boots. The shop is Tienda and it just opened on Victoria Avenue in Albert Park. It's packed with lots of gorgeous goodies!

Guess What.....

I've found heaven, and it was so close to home!!

Earlier this week H came home raving about the best bacon sandwich he had ever had, in fact I believe he said 'best sandwich hands down'! Being the typical picky and annoyingly critical chef that he is (if you've read earlier posts you'll see what I mean) it's unusual for him to eat anything new without having something negative to say so naturally I was intrigued...

As it happened we both had yesterday off - H had his young chef interview at Grossi's and his generous boss gave him the whole day off. Coincidentally I had a work commitment in the city which involved a massive screaming match(yes on my day off, I've really earned my pay rise. PS if you ever get into a screaming match with a crazy person you won't win, they can always out scream you) Once that was over I was quite happy to try on shoes that I can't afford at David Jones for an hour while H finished up, so once we were both done with the screaming and the shoes and the interviewing we were on Bourke Street and looking for some lunch. (FYI, H didn't seem confident, last year they questioned his choice of place of employment, and this year, when he has one of the top jobs in town they just seemed to want to know how his boss runs the business...sheesh!

H was still filled with warm scrummy bacon memories from his first jaunt to our new nirvana, so we whizzed down Little Bourke to the deli-slice of heaven (sorry for the pun), also known as Earl Canteen. We could only wrangle a 15 minute car park so we raced in, H ordered the Pork Belly - crispy skin Otway pork with apple and coleslaw on a crunchy baguette - and I could not look past the Confit Duck, with caramelised wild figs, walnuts, onion jam, radicchio and watercress on perfect ciabatta (half of which is pictured, I munched down the first half before it occurred to me to take a picture...I always do that). It came quickly served by friendly young staff and was scoffed down with 3 minutes to spare on our parking space.

My heaven can be found at 500 Bourke Street (enter from Little Bourke Street, located under Movida) and they open Monday to Friday for brekkie and lunch. Do it!

You can find their full menu at www.earlcanteen.com.au